101cd.CON (101cd.com)

Member Name: 150983

Product:	101cd.com
Date:	08/09/01 (372 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good prices

Disadvantages: messed around, poor quality, long waits for emails etc

Yes one of my first rather negative opinions! You have to read this opinion! Especially the My Experience section to find out what I really think of this service!

Ø Introduction.
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Well what do I have to say about 101cd.com? Well sadly most of the opinion will focus on the negative aspects of the shopping site as 90% of my experience has ended up being negative. Throughout this op, I will tend to compare this site to my regular shopping site Amazon.co.uk. I hope I will leave most of my frustration to the end of this op.

101cd.com is probably a familiar site to many of you, like Amazon.co.uk it deals in the selling of various products which include music, video’s, DVD’s, games and Books.

101cd.com is or at least I thought was a respectable business like Amazon and with regards to Amazon.co.uk I only have nice things to say about the business but 101cd.com is another story.

101cd.com offer a wide range of music videos and other such items usually at great prices. They constantly update their offers, which include selected CDs for £5.99 as well as having reasonable priced chart albums along with the cheap average postage price of a pound (£1) and also offers other offers such as free postage on selected items which are also updated regularly.

Like Amazon.co.uk, the site usually offers imported items as well as the regular UK releases which are sometimes nice to have but they do come at a higher cost. The site offers a lot of items which are available to order as pre-release to ensure you get that new release as soon as it is released and usually they are about the same as regular chart albums although they are sometimes a bit more expensive.

Ø The Layout.
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The layout to 101cd.com is well put together but in my view isn’t as good as Amazon.co.uk as it is rather less ‘user friendly’ especially towards new members although the lin
ks all work and are well displayed for ease of browsing.

The current colour scheme include a white background with hints of blues and reds about the site compared to Amazons white blue and yellow design which is also much bolder with the special offers being more emphasised using various album covers and so on.

The left and right menus on various pages make the site look much more efficient and also makes navigation easier and can also be a reminder of what you came to look at such as a chart album or pre-release book.

The Layout on the whole is generally simplistic and also sections are defined to create ease of use although some tweaks here and there could improve the ease such as Amazons more welcoming, colourful and easier site.

Ø Registration.
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It is fairly simple to join 101cd.com. Simply click on the register link that can be found on the top right hand corner of the screen on the homepage Like similar site, 101cd.com requires you to include some detail about yourself in order to join. These details include such information as your name age address and also they will require you to make up a password as well as entering your credit card details (they do accept solo cards and other cards of the like).

Remember, whilst registering, that all details are supposed to remain confidential and the site is on a secure server so there is hopefully less chance of any fraud or things of the like taking place.

Also in the registration process, you will be asked to enter you ipoints username. If you have an ipoints username, it is worth while entering it in the space provided as ipoints work in conjunction with 101cd.com to give you various offers where you earn ipoints when you buy and also can spend them there as well.

Ø The Help Section
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If any help is required with anything, then help can be found not in the form of a super hero such as sup
erman or danger mouse but in the form of the help section which can also be found in the top right hand corner. The help section is a very useful resources if stuck or just if you are curios about something as it is chock a block full of help advise and also gives you the opportunity to change the language the site it set.

If yet further help is needed, you can then seek additional help from the contact link that can be found on the site.

Ø My Experience of the site.
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The Bearable Part
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I must admit to liking this site at first and it was the prices which propelled me to make a purchase at this site as I usually used Amazon but I always do hunt down cheaper alternative but usually find them offline rather than on.

I think I first came across the site when I was finishing off my collection of No Doubt albums. I had three out of four of the albums and wanted to get the debut album although they cheapest price I could find at the time was in HMV and it was for £16.99! I decided I would shop around a bit more before I committed myself to buying there and to my luck 101cd.com was there to help.

I first used Kelkoo.com to aid me in my quest for the best buy and it was found on 101cd.com for the cheap price of £5.99! I was shocked to find it at this price but the problem came when I wanted to verify if it was the CD I wanted as the information provided did not offer a album picture and not even the track listing! I was in two minds weather to bother and so decided to I would as I could always send it back if I was unhappy with it.

So in all, the CD came to £6.99 inc postage and packing I ordered it (they gave me the chance not to join and just order the CD) and in no time, the CD was on its way to me.

The Terrible Experience!
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It all happened just over 5 weeks ago. I was surfing the net as usual an
d came upon my daily visit to dotmusic.com where I find the latest news as well as charts and reviews. This time I noticed a banner which was offering top 40 CD’s for £7.99 with free postage at the dotmusic shop!

I was surprised to see this banner as the price was even cheaper than cdwow.com and so clicked on it. At first I was put back as the top 40 albums were not all albums which were currently in the charts but were albums which were or had been in the charts. These CD’s were still well priced and included the likes of Travis and Basement Jaxx.

At the first time I looked, there weren’t any albums that I fancied, there were ones that I had or ones that I didn’t want and so decided to not bother for the time being.

In the meantime, I had been shopping and had seen a new album that was out by Aaliyah and since I loved the two releases, I was eager to get it. A few days later, the CD was added to offer and so I jumped at the chance to get it for a cheaper price and ordered it. The whole process was pretty straight forward and only one offer CD was to be allowed per house hold.

A few days later, the package arrived and I opened it only to my dismay to find they had sent me the wrong CD! I was rather saddened as I was looking forward to listening to it. I quickly looked at the receipt that was included to see if they had got the details wrong but they hadn’t! The album was by the same artist but it was about 7 years older than the new third album with its 2001 release!

On the receipt I found the email address and started writing to the shop to sort out this mistake and what was worse was that the CD was about £3 cheaper! Lol

Here is the first email I sent.

08.08.01
“Hi, I received the CD today only to discover that it isn't the correct one! I was expecting to receive a self-entitled album by Aaliyah but received an album called “Age ain't nothing b
ut a number“. What am I supposed to do? The email proves that I ordered the correct CD but did not receive it!
Please reply ASAP. Thanx M James.”

After this email was sent I was patient and waited four days for a reply. During this time, I noticed that on the receipt it read “Powered and fulfilled by 101cd.com” I gathered then that the company owned this service and finally I received an email from 101cd.com about my email but it read

12.08.01
“We received the following enquiry from you at the 101cd.com web site. We
will be in touch shortly.”

The next day came this reply

13.08.01
“Hi Michael
This is to confirm that we have received your email and logged the matters
you have raised. We are currently looking into your enquiry and will get back to you
shortly. Many thanks!”

I later got an email which requested that I send the CD back to their returns department free of charge and they would send out the CD as soon as they received it.

Three more days passed without a word from 101cd.com to say they received the CD and sent off the correct one so I sent them a reply to the last email.

17.08.01
“Hi, I have done what you said and sent the CD off three days ago (Tuesday) when will I receive my CD? Thanx Michael James”

More emails passed and also days until I received an email about my No Doubt album saying that thye had already sent it out months ago! They had moved on to a completely different order and I was getting really annoyed as I had to explain all over again!

Finally I received an email which said they had received the CD I sent back and they would sort out sending the correct CD.

Again I waited

25.08.01
“Hi Michael. Regarding your recent enquiry to 101cd.com - this matter has been resolved as follows:
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. The
Aaliyah CD is on order with our suppliers and once we have it we will send it to you free of charge.”

It took them long enough to tell me how I still hadn’t got my CD! I then waited a long time once more sending emails including this one where I got totally impatient.

30.08.01
“Hi, its nearly been a week since you received the CD I sent back and I have been waiting for about 3 weeks now for the correct CD, when will I receive it? What would happen if the CD was for a present for someone? I would have not been able to give in on time. I am very annoyed that this has taken so long and would seriously consider shopping elsewhere in the future!”

More time passed with no reply so I sent another email.

05.09.01
“Hi, this has been the second email I have sent since I received this email. The last email I sent got no reply. I am still waiting the Aaliyah UK version CD! It will be a month tomorrow when I ordered the CD and am getting really annoyed at the wait that I have received and still am receiving! Please reply to this email ASAP hopefully with a solution! Thanx. Michael James.”

The next day….

06.09.01
“Hi Michael, We just wanted to update you on the status of your order
The details are as follows:
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1 of AALIYAH - AALIYAH – despatched”

Hallelujah! They had finally sent it out and I hoped it would the correct CD ….. but was it?

The next day (07.09.01) I received the package. I finally had the CD in my grasp and when I opened it I had that relief of it all being over snatched away when I found the CD in a terrible condition! I couldn’t understand how it was so damaged because it was in a strong cardboard package and here’s the email which I sent to them to complain bitterly about my discovery with a surprising bit of dete
ctive work on my behalf! You’ve got to read this.

07.09.01
“After waiting a month to receive this CD due to a despatch mix up, I was glad to finally receive my Aaliyah CD today but to my upset, I opened the cardboard packing to find the correct CD but was disgusted to find it in an unsatisfactory condition!

I found, when I opened the package, that the jewel case had many cracks in it as well as pieces missing and also one of the hinges was non-existent! It was clear that the CD was in this condition when it was sent as none of the broken off pieces were present in the packaging! I hope that I did not receive this treatment as a result of me sending emails complaining about my order as it has taken a month to sort things out and still things are not OK.

I am not satisfied by the service I have received at all! I regularly shop with Amazon and I thought I would give you a chance to see how good your service was but sadly in comparison, 101cd.com are terrible and I don't think I will be shopping with you again unless this matter is resolved to my satisfaction.

I hope that you are sorry for the treatment I have received and as a gesture, I am willing to accept some sort of compensation for my troubles.

Looking forward to getting a reply ASAP!

Michael James (disgruntled customer)”

This is the last email I have sent and hopefully it will work in my favour as I have felt rather messed around by this site and as I say in the email I don’t think I will shop there again as response was often slow to emails and I feel that I have been seriously mistreated. I am usually an easy going guy but when I get messed around as much as I did with 101cd.com its difficult to remain calm a patient. If it was just one mistake which occurred at the start with the CDs getting mixed up, It would be easier to take and forgive as it could be an easy mistake but to have so many problems that I hav
e encountered with only one order is terrible!

I will let you all know what the response will be if there is one and hopefully arrangements will be made because I still am angry at the way I have been treated. If other customers have experienced this sort of thing too I think they will become very unpopular and will loose out in the long run as they will loose valuable customers.

:) Mike.

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